Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it, follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.

Our rules have been updated and given their own forum. Go and look at them! They are nice, and there may be new ones that you didn't know about! Hooray for rules! Hooray for The System! Hooray for Conforming!

"I'm fine," the woman says, hesitantly returning Tanaka's smile with a weak one of her own. "Everyone has been very kind."

Much as she insists, she seems to be recovering well enough. A few of the bandages from the previous day have been removed to reveal quickly fading scabs, though the worst of her wounds are still covered with fresh gauze stringed securely into place. She should be good as new in a handful of days, a week at worst.

"We walked here, from very far to the west, over the mountains. Sloe Town." She looks down and takes a few deep breaths as though preparing to admit to something heinous. "We trespassed, in our crossing."

The woman seems a bit taken aback at Tanaka's ignorance of her meaning, but recovers. "The Plateau. To transgress on sacred ground is punishable by death. We- I... didn't think they would pursue us so far."

With a shuffle, the Oddish laboriously uproots itself from the sod, shaking flecks of dirt and muck from its cankered hide. The wide, childlike face from before peers at Elise through its drooping leaves like a sullen teenager peeking through their bangs at a scolding parent.

In fact, having just come up out of the turf, it looks an awful lot like it was... grounded

"Well, that explains that then. Will they be sending more people to kill you?" Tullius immediately realized the callousness of his remark. "Not that you'll be killed, of course. Just uhh... will there be more? And also, if you could tell us which direction 'The Plateau' is so we can be sure to avoid it when we leave, that'd be great."

The Oddish waddles slowly over to the bench, pointedly ignoring Zeal, and flops down into a seated position.

~Malachite Noble's Quarters~

The woman shrugs at Tanaka's praise. "I don't know if there will be more of them, I've never heard of anyone escaping, but I didn't think they would chase us this far, either. I'm sorry." She fiddles with her hands in her lap.

"The Plateau is about a week's travel north and west. You wouldn't be able stumble onto it by accident."

The woman smiles, wanly. "Drought, bad harvest, skirmishes. My home isn't a good place to be anymore, fleeing seemed like a good idea."

"Wooooo!"

The woman turns around in her seat in time to see the kid coming down the stairs behind her, carefully taking them one at a time. This is probably due to the foot-tall blue Pokemon squirming happily on his shoulders, whooping excitedly. As the youngster makes it down to the landing, the creature's squirming redoubles until the boy leans over enough for the Pokemon to hop off, and began making waddling circuits around his legs. "Pah! Pah! Pah! Pah!"

"Be careful, dear," the woman scolds him, reproachfully, but the kid is quite clearly engrossed with the Pokemon running circles around him. Realizing she isn't getting through to him, the woman sighs and turns back around to face her visitors.

"Well, if this Plateau is so well known and so infamous, why'd you go through it rather than around it?"

Timaeus was easily distracted from the boring conversation by the entrance of the wooper and dismounted his trusty steed to greet the Pokemon and engage in some water-type gossip. Explain the local watering holes, that sort of thing. It was, after all, both customary and polite, even if this one didn't seem all that interested in the subject. Realizing that the Wooper just plain didn't care, Tullius decided to join in on the fun instead.

Spoiler:

I know Woopers are near the top of the cute-ometer, but I think Timaeus might give him a run for his money.

"There wasn't much time to plan things, everything just sort of happenedin a hu-" the woman begins explaining before being forced to grasp the armrest of the chair for support as it angles upward. Taking the loss of his rider as a chance to make a spirited bid for freedom, Orion has begun forcibly wedging himself beneath the chair, his tail whipping back and forth furiously as he shoves himself into the makeshift hiding spot.

The impromptu dance party on the landing continues. Though the kid seems his usual distant self, he's at least interested in the joyful proceedings.

Tullius watched Orion hiding under the chair and wondered if there was some way to help the poor little guy feel a bit more comfortable. He briefly considered adjusting his robes so that the scorpion could hide underneath them, but decided that it might be a bit uncomfortable. Instead, he lowered his backpack to the ground and coached Orion out from under the chair and into that, instead. Tullius reasoned that it would be the best of both worlds; a mobile hiding place.

"Sorry about that interruption. Now then, if you wouldn't mind explaining the details of your... hmm... journey?"

After satisfactorily looking over the ruined armor she discards it, when Elise's ears are suddenly assailed by a pleading buzzing sound disturbingly similar to a whining insectoid puppy.

Elise looks up at the sun. "Time for afternoon training, right?" All three combee heads attempt to nod at once, veering slightly from their steady hover.

The noble begins her stretching routine, paying the acid just a few feet to the right of her no mind. Zeal lands on the bench and mechanically flexes the same wing muscles over and over, eerily overjoyed by the dull routine. Elise looks over at the oddish repeatedly, waving her over to participate.

A few simple exercises later (pushups et al), Elise pulls out a moderately small ball. Zeal quickly takes position across the garden. A nod, and Elise throws the ball, Zeal outlining the ball in a silver light before slamming it back with a rigid wing and a proud flourish. Elise takes a single step to her right and turns her polearm, the incoming object slamming against the flat of the axe blade and landing harmlessly on the ground.

Man, these week-long no GM post sprees are just killer. Happy early Easter, you bastards.

~Malachite Nobles' Quarters~

Orion seems to like where he currently is quite fine, thank you.

The woman waves her hand dismissively in response to Tullius' question. "Like most, I assume. Exhausting, dirty, an exercise in deprivation, lots of rocks and trees. We didn't realize how close on our trail the cultists were until we nearly had reached your city."

~Elise & Zeal~

The Oddish watches carefully, and, with a hiss, swats at the ball with an extruded vine. The tiny object rebounds off the ground, sending a flurry of dead leaves flying, and spins past Elise, bouncing off the stone wall behind her before rolling to a stop.

The momentary contact with the corrosive Pokemon has given the ball a blackened smudge on one side, but other than that it's practically good as new.

The Oddish shuffles its leaves, happily, perhaps not exactly understanding the point of the game but enjoying the sense of participation, nonetheless.

Spoiler:

Wonder how much the alcohol is showing in this post. Cider is soooo good.

Tullius opened his Codex and performed a cursory scan of his pages. How could he have missed this? He'd read this stupid book cover to cover more times than he could count! There was definitely nothing about a sacred ground in the area. And yet, this book was packed with ancient laws that governed the society of before. Surely, if such a place existed, it would be located in the index designating crimes punishable by death. Still, the Plateau... it did set in his brain a bit of a gnawing familiarity in the back of his head... perhaps there was mention of the place somewhere in the enigmatic depths of the oft-ignored section known as Regional League Information. Nobody paid much attention to that part anymore; it seemed to be concerned with the governance of a more centralized authority, something that controlled far more than just Malachite. The rules were complex, obscure, and written in a bizarre and outmoded style, much of it pasted into the actual book from other documents. Tullius remembered enjoying that part because it was so colorful, filled with brightly-colored (if inaccurate and poorly labeled) maps and drawings, whereas the rest of the Codex was as plain and direct as you would expect a giant list of laws to be.

He made a mental note to check more thoroughly later, and closed the book with a loud whump. "Very well, I think that's all the information I need. Tanaka, did you have any more questions?"

Tullius shifted his backpack around a bit; he never realized how odd it was to have something alive back there. He wished Orion would settle down, regardless of how anxious he was.

"What happened to you being 'always free,' huh? I kinda assumed you were gonna be staying here to protect her, the way you were talking." Timaeus wandered out of the room, no longer Wooper-distracted, looking once again for his trusty steed. Tullius ignored him. "But if you are intending to go with us, I see no reason why it shouldn't be sooner rather than later."

Mostly because I wasn't sure there was anything my character particularly needed to be doing, she's happy enough chatting to people in the Academy (also I have been pretty busy, but that's not likely to change anytime soon) and I couldn't really think of a suitable way to bring her in on this conversation without de-railing things.

Tullius and Tanaka gather up whatever companions show willing, pack up whatever the heck it is they are planning on taking with them, and begin their jaunt northward, ostensibly starting with a trek through Malachite Forest, unless they are planning to take a longer, circumspect route.

Regardless, supplies are easily procured, allies are located, and a path through the unoccupied portion of Malachite City is forged. The lonely, long abandoned homes and hollow towers provide a sobering backdrop to the journey's start, the silence only broken by the party's own movement, chatting (if they are so inclined), and the occasional clatter of a Rattata (or possibly lost Weedle or Caterpie) fleeing through the broken bricks of collapsed houses and thorny bushes encroaching on the empty streets.

The treeline of the Malachite Forest is less than a stone's throw away from the wall this far north, the growth quickly thickening into a canopy sufficient to block out majority the day's grayish, cloud-filtered sunlight. Dew still clings to the undergrowth in miniscule droplets, and the sounds of wildlife are muted in the damp, cool air.

A good twenty minutes later the ball is corroded and nonfunctional. Finishing up the routine, Elise and Zeal prepare to leave with a farewell. The noble just doesn't know how she's going to take care of something like this oddish without her understanding why she needs to be careful around others. Maybe with enough visits she'll catch on...well...enough to leave?

All that remains is to alert the captain of the guard of the intruder and the day might as well be finished.

Tullius addressed the group setting out from Malachite. "Well guys, what say we stop by one of those odd scar marks in Malachite Forest on our way? I hear they're pretty dangerous, but we've got a big group... I can't think of a better time to check them out."